‘I love it here’
Kentucky golfer captures Cape Breton Open title.
It may have been his first visit to Cape Breton, but Patrick Newcomb has already fallen in love with the island known for its scenery and hospitality.
On Sunday, the 27-year-old native of Kentucky won the latest edition of the Cape Breton Open at Bell Bay Golf Club in Baddeck. Newcomb fired a final round 8-under-par 64 to capture the PGA Canada’s McKenzie Tour event by three strokes.
“Yeah, I love it here – this is my first time here and everything and everybody has been amazing,” said Newcomb, who also won the tour’s Syncrude Oil Country Championship in Edmonton in early August.
“I can’t tell you how much work I’ve put into my golf game – years and years. But I love it. It’s great that everything has been coming together lately.”
The short, but powerfully built Newcomb, who also won the Honduras Open, an event of the PGA Tour’s Latin-or-american series in March, eagled the fourth and birdied the fifth, before he landed his tee shot in a awkward position on the par 3 sixth hole. But he kept the momentum going by flopping the ball out of trouble and into the hole.
“Yeah, things were going well and when I holed out from trouble on the sixth hole and got a birdie instead of a bogey or worse, I felt that it was going to be one of those days,” said Newcomb.
The tour’s first two-time winner of the 2017 season would then further distance himself from his pursuers by chipping in for an eagle on No. 13.
The two players who began the week at the top of the McKenzie Tour’s Order of Merit remained there as top-ranked Americans Kramer Hickok ($86,202) and second-placed Robby Shelton ($77,260) finished the Cape Breton Open in a tie for second, three strokes behind the winner.
Newcomb ($74,065) moved up to fourth, while another American, Johnny Ruiz ($62,731) is fourth position. German Max Rottluff ($54,233) sits in fifth position.
The top five places on the McKenzie Tour money list are highly sought after as those holding those spots at the end of the season will earn full status on next year’s Web.com Tour, the last step before the elite PGA Tour.
There are just two events left on the 2017 Canadian tour’s calendar, The Ontario Championship takes place next weekend in Barrie, Ont., while the season-ending Freedom 55 Financial Championship is scheduled for Sept. 14-17 in London, Ont.
As for local golfers, Baddeck natives Peter Campbell and Trevor Chow had less than ideal rounds in their hometown and both missed the cut.
The 34-year-old Campbell, who turned pro in 2006, finished at 11 over par after rounds of 76 and 79, while 2017 Nova Scotia mid-amateur champion Trevor Chow, 40, fired a 77 and a 74 to finish 7 over par.
The top Canadian at the 2017 Cape Breton Open was Michael Gligic, of Burlington, Ont. He finished at 13-under par, good for a seventh place tie.